New Perspectives in Science Education

The profound shifts in the public school demographics across America are well documented (and highly reflective of international patterns), particularly in large metropolitan areas.  One such demographic group includes English Language Learners (ELLs) which has witnessed an increase of more than one half million students educated in the public school system between 1990 and 2014 [1]. It follows that a deep need arises to re-tool teacher training programs to ensure that new teachers are equipped with the skills and understandings needed to teach linguistically diverse learners. Thus, targeted training programs that allow preservice students to learn and continually practice the needed pedagogy to successfully address this population is necessary [2]. In response to this need, an intensive, clinically rich teacher education program was designed by a core of faculty at a university in the metropolitan region of New York City to prepare bilingual science candidates to teach secondary science in multilingual classroom environments. This program, Project BEST (Bilingual Educators of Science and Technology) received state-wide recognition and government funding to support two cohorts of bilingual preservice teachers from 2011-2014. The focus of this presentation is to share the design features of this teacher residency model including unique course offerings along with a general overview of program outcomes.

[1] National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (2010).  Transforming teacher education through clinical practice: A national strategy to prepare effective teachers. Washington, DC: Report of the Blue Ribbon Panel.

[2] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics. (2014), The condition of education 2014 (NCES 2014-083). English Language Learners.